The Magic of Quad

Quad designed wonderful hi-fi and it still works so well and even allows me to play my iPad using the BBC iRadio App. I bought the Quad 606 amplifier, pre-amp amp and tuner from a hi-fi shop in Cambridge, UK. They had been traded in and were in good working order, or where they? I took them up to Quad in Huntingdon and Peter and Ken Bunting serviced them. That is right – they serviced hi-fi equipment that was made thirty years ago. Sadly I had been slightly misled but a few weeks later I collected (and paid for the service and replacement parts) and they are as good as new. Some people want to update some of the parts, but why? They are designed to be reliable and so they are.

The 63 ESL speakers are delicate beasts and large. I made the mistake of buying the first pair I found from a dubious “dealer’ in Cornwall. Then I found a specialist near Leicester and they have been re-built to the highest standard. The specialist re-builds the 63s or you can take them to Quad in Huntingdon who will replace the panels with new ones made in China. I wonder if anyone thinks that they can tell the difference. One speaker settled in and has never made a non-musical sound. The other has made a few burps and hisses but I am instructed to keep them switched on – to keep the electrostatic charge on – and to use them. The sound is glorious and so different from little speakers however clever their wi-fi or bluetooth.

I have yet to have the aerial set up so the FM tuner is untried. Quad did fit a new battery and replaced the part that had got slightly corroded after thirty years of service.

So here I am typing away on the Internet and using the World Wide Web invented by a British man and listening to hi-fi designed and built in Britain. The CD is by Roksan another British product but this time designed British people who came from Persia and named their products accordingly.